This is my Domain Cost Club Review. In my opinion, they are a good reliable domain registrar. I should know, I have been buying, renewing and transferring domain names for some time.
Introduction
I have dealt with a few different domain registrars in my time. I came across Domain Cost Club in November 2014. Since then, they have got all of my domain name related business (new registrations, renewals and transfers). Based on my actual real world experience, I find that they are a good reliable domain registrar. They have great prices and free domain privacy services.
Here you are going to find my detailed review of Domain Cost Club. This includes my history with them since November 2014, my pros and my cons.
My preferred domain registration supplier is Domain Cost Club. I have been dealing with them since November 2014. Since the middle of 2015 I moved the domain names I had registered elsewhere over to them. All of my domain names are now registered with them.
As a paid up member of Domain Cost Club I also get free domain privacy services for any of the domain names I have registered with them. In my case, I use domain privacy services for all of my domain names. This can be enabled or disabled on demand by me for individual domain names I have registered with Domain Cost Club within my back office.
I also earn money on referrals when my referrals purchase an annual membership. This becomes recurring when they renew their annual membership the following year which is usually the case.
I explain why Domain Cost Club is my preferred domain registration supplier. Since November 2014, they have got all of my domain name related business. This includes new registrations, renewals, transfers and domain privacy services. This domain name (workfromhomenotes.com) is registered with Domain Cost Club as clearly shown below:
As I have a current active applicable Domain Cost Club membership, I get new registrations, renewals and transfers at great prices. I also get free domain privacy services. I also earn recurring money on referrals.
This in my opinion is a good deal. They have different membership types to cater for anyone who purchases domain names per year. The different membership types are based on ranges of domain names you expect to buy per year and you can even upgrade your membership type to a higher membership type if you find yourself buying more domain names than expected!
Examples of Potential Member Savings
Below are a few examples of potential member savings. Remember that these potential member savings are for each domain name you register in these domain extensions.
Domain Cost Club members can register or renew or transfer as many domains as they want (subject to applicable Domain Cost Club Membership type, they simply upgrade their membership type if necessary) and at any time they want at the same exact price that it costs Domain Cost Club and every other ICANN accredited registrar, such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions.
Purchasing at this price can result in some great potential savings, even after taking the cost of Domain Cost Club membership into account. A really big potential saving is that domain privacy services for Domain Cost Club members is $0.00 (yes zero) per domain name (purchased using your Domain Cost Club membership) per year for current Domain Cost Club members. Just so you know, domain privacy services are also currently free for retail accounts (non-Club members) at Domain Cost Club.
| Description | Domain Cost Club member prices | Recommended retail prices | Whopping potential saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| .GALLERY domain | $14.00 | $26.00 | $12.00 |
| .FIT domain | $20.00 | $38.00 | $18.00 |
| .FLORIST domain | $21.50 | $41.00 | $19.50 |
| .PLUMBING domain | $35.50 | $68.00 | $32.50 |
| .FLOWERS domain | $100.00 | $175.00 | $75.00 |
| .AUTO domain | $2,000.00 | $2,500.00 | $500.00 |
My review is based on experience. I have been buying domains since at least April 2002. I became a Domain Cost Club member in November 2014. By the end of the first half of 2015, I completed the process to transfer my domains over to Domain Cost Club. I now have all of my domains registered with Domain Cost Club. And this is still the case in 2020.
Domain Cost Club Overview
Domain Cost Club is a fully ICANN accredited domain registrar. You may or may not know that not all domain registrars are fully ICANN accredited. The ones that are, are nearer to the “top of the food chain” in the domain name industry.
Domain Cost Club is a fully ICANN accredited domain registrar with a number of differences. Like most if not all domain registrars they allow you to register domains, renew domains and allow you to transfer your existing domains to them. There is a huge difference in potential costs for paid up members of Domain Cost Club.
Paid up members of Domain Cost Club get this at the price that Domain Cost Club paid with no mark-up (subject to membership type and status). This is completely unlike most if not all other domain registrars.
The accompanying image below show promos which were available to Domain Cost Club Members which may have changed since I captured that screenshot. Domain Cost Club members have access to the current special Domain Cost Club Member only promotional pricing which usually contains some really good promotions.
What Is Domain Cost Club?
This is a domain registrar that allows their members to register domains, renew domains and transfer domains at huge cost savings.
In order for you to purchase domains at-cost price with them, you become a paid up member of their club. This is a small membership fee paid yearly and in a lot of cases, is well worth it.
I love the fact that I, as a Domain Cost Club Member, know that I am getting my domains using at-cost pricing. I don’t have to waste time going to a number of domain registrars to see what their current special deal is or look around for crazy coupons that are only valid for the first domain that you buy with that registrar for just the one year. Crazy.
You pay an annual membership fee based on the number of domains that you estimate you will purchase using your Domain Cost Club membership that can result in good savings. With this sort of arrangement the more domains you purchase with your membership, the more money you will typically save.
You can also upgrade your membership type during the year should you discover that you want to buy more domains at-cost than what your current membership type allows you to. I have seen some of my existing customers do this.
What Are the Membership Types?
There are four different membership types available at Domain Cost Club. This allows you to determine which one is the best type for you right now. They even allow you to upgrade your membership type during the year should you find that you need to. Hint, some Domain Cost Club members do take advantage of this and actually upgrade their membership type during the year. This is one reason why Domain Cost Club facilitate this.
| Membership type | Buy/Renew Domains at-cost | Membership cost per year |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | 5 | $9.99 |
| Basic | 19 | $29.99 |
| Plus | 49 | $49.99 |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | $99.99 |
Domain Cost Club added the Lite, Basic and Plus Membership types a while back. This now makes their offer way more attractive to people who do not buy or renew many domain names.
For this reason, the price comparisons mentioned later in this post use five or less domains in the pricing comparisons.
Many people register/renew/move five or fewer domains per year so having the membership type of Lite caters for those people. The other membership types would be considered as “over the top” for those people and so the Lite membership type suits those people.
Some members start off at the Lite Membership level, then upgrade their membership level at a later date when they have seen for themselves the benefits of membership or more likely when they realise that they need the higher level of membership.
Domain Cost Club Review – Huge Cost Savings for Domain Cost Club Members
The biggest immediate benefits of Domain Cost Club membership – The huge cost savings for members because members enjoy at-cost domain name pricing.
Domain Cost Club have determined that their average domain price per name per year is $8 while their competitors average domain price per name per year is $13. This is explained more in the accompanying image.
For the purposes of this, I will compare their costing with HostGator who also have a domain offering.
You should know that many domain registrars do charge extra for domain privacy on a per domain per year basis. GoDaddy.com charge extra for domain privacy per domain per year. So does NameCheap.com, as well as Name.com.
I have selected the .COM extension in these examples because my understanding is that domains ending with the popular .COM extension account for over 40% of domains out there. Of course this may change in the future but I want my examples here to be as realistic as possible.
Note that I performed these price comparisons in March 2019. These will most likely change in the future.
HostGator Prices
For a domain using the popular .COM extension, the domain registration fee for one year is $12.95 per domain name per year and the domain privacy fee for one year is $14.95 per domain name per year. They absorb the mandatory $0.18 ICANN fee per year per domain. This brings their cost (excluding any applicable taxes) with domain privacy to be $27.90 per .COM domain name per year.
Domain Cost Club Prices
For a domain using the popular .COM extension, the domain registration fee for one year is $7.85 per domain name per year and the domain privacy fee for one year is $0.00 (Zero) per domain name per year. Plus the mandatory $0.18 ICANN fee per year per domain. There may be a processing fee for payment processing. For these calculations, I am assuming this is $0.41 which brings their cost (excluding any applicable taxes) with domain privacy to be $8.44 per .COM domain name per year. Plus the price of the applicable Domain Cost Club Membership type. Lite membership allows you to buy 5 domains at-cost and membership costs $9.99 per year.
Comparison – for One Domain Ending with the Popular .COM Extension
Costings for one domain ending with the popular .COM extension including the cost of domain privacy and cost of membership where applicable.
| Description | HostGator prices | Domain Cost Club prices |
|---|---|---|
| Domain registration for one year per .COM domain | $12.95 | $7.85 |
| Domain privacy services for one year per .COM domain | $14.95 | $0.00 |
| ICANN fee for one year per .COM domain | Absorbed | $0.18 |
| Payment processing fee | Unsure | $0.41 |
| Annual Lite Domain Cost Club Membership for one year | Not Applicable | $9.99 |
| Payment processing fee on the membership fee | Not Applicable | $0.50 |
| Total cost to registrar one .COM domain with domain privacy services | $27.90 | $18.93 |
Comparison – for Two Domains Ending with the Popular .COM Extension
Costings for two domains ending with the popular .COM extension including the cost of domain privacy and cost of membership where applicable.
| Description | HostGator prices | Domain Cost Club prices |
|---|---|---|
| Domain registration for one year for two .COM domains | $25.90 | $15.70 |
| Domain privacy services for one year for two .COM domains | $29.90 | $0.00 |
| ICANN fee for one year for two .COM domains | Absorbed | $0.36 |
| Payment processing fee | Unsure | $0.81 |
| Annual Lite Domain Cost Club Membership for one year | Not Applicable | $9.99 |
| Payment processing fee on the membership fee | Not Applicable | $0.50 |
| Total cost to registrar two .COM domains with domain privacy services | $55.80 | $27.36 |
Comparison – for Five Domains Ending with the Popular .COM Extension
Costings for five domains ending with the popular .COM extension including the cost of domain privacy and cost of membership where applicable.
| Description | HostGator prices | Domain Cost Club prices |
|---|---|---|
| Domain registration for one year for five .COM domains | $64.75 | $39.25 |
| Domain privacy services for one year for five .COM domains | $74.75 | $0.00 |
| ICANN fee for one year for two .COM domains | Absorbed | $0.90 |
| Payment processing fee | Unsure | $2.01 |
| Annual Lite Domain Cost Club Membership for one year | Not Applicable | $9.99 |
| Payment processing fee on the membership fee | Not Applicable | $0.50 |
| Total cost to registrar five .COM domains with domain privacy services | $139.50 | $52.65 |
These are huge savings on buying between one and five domains ending with the popular .COM extension.
.COM Domains Account for over 40% of the Domain Name Market
My understanding is that domains ending with the popular .COM extension account for over 40% of domains out there.
Before you ask, my understanding is that domains ending with the popular .NET extension account for over 4% of domains out there and domains ending with the popular .ORG extension account for over 3% of domains out there. So based on those statistics, domains ending with .COM account for the major share of domain names out there today.
Although there are now many other extension names it is important to bear in mind that .COM is still the major extension name used today.
Domains ending with .COM are still important. Remember that they account for over 40% of the domain names out there. Businesses are still prepared to spend big money on the right domain name with the .COM extension. Here are some examples:
- Zoom may have spent $2 million for Zoom.com
- Elon Musk may have spent $11 million for tesla.com
Once a business is well known in a certain sector, people expect that business to be using the appropriate domain name ending with the .COM extension.
In my own case, I have active websites against each of my active domain names. Of course, there are people out there who make money flipping domain names, however that is not the route I have chosen. Of course, there is nothing stopping you from buying domain names and then flipping them. Of course, you will need to find buyers for those domain names.
It is all very well speculating that the previous owners of those two domain names (zoom.com & tesla.com) make a lot of money. Both those previous owners had to register those domains, know that they were worth renewing, keep them current, and be able to find a prospective buyer for the domain name that was willing to pay so much. And be in a position to negotiate such attractive sums of money.
Have You Ever Registered a Domain Name and Then Have Second Thoughts?
Let’s see what happens if I register a domain and don’t actually want it after registration. Maybe due to a typo or I thought of a better domain name two or three days after registration.
Domain Cost Club is the only domain registrar that I am aware of that allows you to cancel your domain registration within 5 days after purchase to get a refund. Read that last sentence again.
Many people misspell their new domain names by accident during the purchasing process and only afterwards realize the error. If you buy your domain using your Domain Cost Club Membership and you ask them, they will delete and refund your domain name up to 5 days after purchase. This is awesome.
Oh, and I know that they do, because I brought a domain name a while back that I had second thoughts about and wanted them to do this for me. They did and my payment was reversed, so all good. Happy days. 🙂 🙂
That experience was when I brought a domain name on October 2017 and cancelled it a few days later. I actually thought of a better domain name a day or so after I purchased that domain name. So I purchased that better domain name, sent an email to Domain Cost Club informing them I did not want the original domain. I received an email from Domain Cost Club in a timely manner confirming that the original domain name was cancelled and that the money was already repaid. It was. If only all businesses online and offline behaved in a professional prompt manner like this. 🙂
With other domain registrars there is no come back even one second after the domain is paid for. That used to hurt me however no more. 🙂 🙂
Regularly in online chats I see people saying that they just brought a domain name and only realised after they registered the domain that the domain name has a typo. They then go back to their domain registrar expecting it to be fixed. And only then find out that their domain registrar does not offer this “please delete that domain I registered and refund my money” facility. Instead they are left with a domain name that they no longer want.
That is crap customer service in my opinion. Even worst in my opinion is if they opted to registrar that domain for say ten years along with chargeable domain privacy for each of those ten years and the domain registrar will not allow that person to cancel that deal. That is really bad customer service in my opinion and would leave a really bad taste in my mouth if it happened to me.
As I say, I am only aware of just one domain registrar who will delete the domain and give you your money back provided you ask them within five days of purchase. If Domain Cost Club can do this it means that there is nothing stopping other registrars from doing this as well. The only thing really stopping those other registrars in my opinion is that green-eyed monster called greed.
How Domain Cost Club Membership Works
Basically you purchase a Domain Cost Club Membership package which allows you to register domains, renew domains and allow you to transfer your existing domains to them. You purchase these domains at what Domain Cost Club calls at-cost price which is usually way cheaper than the cost of domains with other domain registrars.
Pros
At-Cost domain name pricing
Register or transfer or renew domains at the exact same price that it costs Domain Cost Club (and every other ICANN accredited registrar, such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions). This is usually way better than the official recommended retail price. Additional special limited time pricing promotions are also make available to Domain Cost Club members.
Free domain privacy services
Other registrars charge up to $14.95 per year per domain name, here it is free, both for members and for retail accounts. This can be quite a big saving. For example, domain privacy service for two domains for one year may potentially cost you $29.90. However over ten years those domain privacy service for those two domains may potentially cost you $149.50. That is some potential saving.
Earn recurring money on referrals
If you know people who would purchase Domain Cost Club memberships using your referral code, this is one way you could make money with domain names. This is one potential way for you to get involved in the domain name business.
More Pros
More pros include:-
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Over 400 different domain extensions to choose from
This includes the usual familiar ones of .COM, .ORG and .NET and the like. Not all domain registrars have this extensive range of different domain extensions.
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Refund your domain registration within 5 days after purchase
Handy if you had a typo in your new domain name and did not notice the error until later. I changed my mind one time after buying a domain name, requested the refund within 2 days of purchase and the refund was in my Paypal account within two days. No credit notes. No messing around. Just the request fully completed. NOTE: I have still to see another domain registrar offer this.
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Refund your domain renewal within 5 days after purchase
You might have set on “autorenew” for your domain name. Then once the domain was automatically renewed, saw the money leaving your account. A simple email to Domain Cost Club within 5 days requesting them to refund your domain renewal will see that renewal cancelled and your money refunded. NOTE: I have still to see another domain registrar offer this.
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Easy to work with & support is very responsive
That is my experience with them since November 2014.
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The “Control Panel” To Manage Domains Is Slick, Clean And Easy To Work With
This is what I find, especially when I compare it with the “Control Panel” used by my earlier domain registrar.
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Domain Cost Club is a fully ICANN accredited domain registrar
This is not always the case with other businesses offering domain registrations. Some are domain resellers who then deal with a fully ICANN accredited domain registrar to register your domains for you. Nothing wrong with that, just means there are more mouths to feed and so potentially adds to the price you pay.
Cons
Small cost of annual applicable Domain Cost Membership
The small cost of annual Domain Cost Club membership.
Hard to understand concept – Buy applicable membership to buy up to a specified number of domains at-cost
You pay a small fee to become a member and this allows you to register or renew up to a specified number of domains at the exact same price that it costs Domain Cost Club (and every other ICANN Domain Registrar such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions). And as an added bonus, you also do not pay extra for domain privacy services which others charge as much as $14.95 per year per domain name for.
Domain Cost Club is not widely known
Domain Cost Club are not widely known by people who purchase and renew domain names within the huge International domain name industry.
Conclusion
I continue with a few more points:
Not All Domain Registrars Are the Same
All domain registrars are not the same. At least one big player in the domain name business wouldn’t let me purchase a domain name in the new .SITE top level extension in July 2015. At the time, Domain Cost Club would allow me to purchase domains in the new .SITE top level extension. Domain Cost Club allows people to purchase .SITE domain names or the very popular .COM domain names as well as hundreds of other domain extensions. 🙂 🙂
Back in July 2015 when I was doing some research with another domain registrar who was in business for quite some time before that, their on-line interface did not even recognize the new .SITE top level extension that had come out earlier that month.
That told me that they were not staying current with the domain name marketplace.
I couldn’t even purchase any .SITE top level extension domains from them, yet they have been available from Domain Cost Club from the middle of July 2015 when they were released.
Back in 2015, the domain registrar I used to be with wanted $9.99 for a .COM domain for one year plus $7.95 for domain privacy, which for me as a Domain Cost Club Member costs $7.85 plus $0.00 for domain privacy. $17.94 or $7.85 for the same thing. I recommend the $7.85 over the $17.94 option any day for the same services. Note that this example excludes the small cost of Domain Cost Club membership, the small ICANN fee per domain name and applicable taxes.
In April 2020, I did more research. Well the domain registrar I used to be with wanted $10.99 for a .COM com domain for one year plus $9.99 for domain privacy, which for me as a Domain Cost Club Member costs $7.85 plus $0.00 for domain privacy. $20.98 or $7.85 for the same thing. I recommend the $7.85 over the $20.98 option any day for the same services. Note that this example excludes the small cost of Domain Cost Club membership, the small ICANN fee per domain name and applicable taxes.
I also found it hard prior to 2016 to navigate inside that domain registrar’s website when doing domain management work, which meant that I had to waste time figuring out how to do domain management work. For me, the domain management work was changing configuration settings of one type or another, as such these would not change much. I would spend a lot of time in the back office figuring out how to do a relatively simple task. I would have thought that this would be something that a domain registrar would spend on getting right. It is in my opinion super important to make sure that any back office to manage domains is user friendly and really easy to use. But this domain registrar did not bother doing that. I don’t know if that improved since when I stopped using them in 2015. I had used them for a number of years before 2015 and I always found it hard to navigate inside that domain registrar’s website when doing domain management work.
Anyway I find it way easier to navigate within the back office at Domain Cost Club when doing domain management work.
Back in 2015, another registrar (GoDaddy) had a discount Domain Club which allows people to buy domains cheaper. With GoDaddy, it is almost $120 per year for their membership package. With Domain Cost Club, membership per year varies in price from $9.99 to $99.99 based on membership type. With GoDaddy for their discount Domain Club, a .COM domain is $8.29 per year, with Domain Cost Club it is $7.85 – I recommend Domain Cost Club as it is cheaper in this case. Also with them, the person who referred the person who buys the almost $120 annual membership fee gets nothing for their trouble.
That in my opinion is a horrible way to treat people who got you business with the customer having already paid. In this case I recommend Domain Cost Club over them any day.
In April 2020, I did additional research regarding that other discount Domain Club. Their prices are still the same as above. However I noticed nothing was mentioned about pricing for domain privacy with them. It looks like the cheapest option for domain privacy with them is an additional $9.99 per year per domain with this other discount Domain Cost Club. They are still almost $120 per year for their membership package and still $8.29 per year for a .COM domain. I also believe that domain privacy is not included. This would cost you an additional $9.99 per year per domain with this other discount Domain Cost Club. Membership of Domain Cost Club varies from $9.99 per year to $99.99 per year depending on membership type (vs almost $120 per year with this other discount Domain Club), a .COM with Domain Cost Club is $7.85 (vs almost $8.29 with this other discount Domain Club) and privacy with Domain Cost Club is $0.00 (yes nil) (vs $9.99 with this other discount Domain Club). Costings above exclude any applicable taxes. So it still makes sense to go with Domain Cost Club. No surprises there.
I recommend Domain Cost Club based on personal experience with them since November 2014. And based on my own personal experiences with other domain registrars since 2002. And based on my own personal research when I was researching domain registrars at different times since 2002.
Who Should Join Domain Cost Club
In my opinion, everyone who buys or renews domain names should join Domain Cost Club. Domain names are registered for different purposes, including branding purposes, blogging purposes, marketing purposes, selling purposes, professional purposes and flipping purposes.
Domain names can be very important for branding purposes. Some domain names are worth a fortune. For instance Zoom may have spent $2 million for Zoom.com and Elon Musk may have spent $11 million for tesla.com
Many people test different websites with different domain names in order to determine which combination works best for them. So if you are purchasing domain names the at-cost pricing on domains for Domain Cost Club members can add up to some serious savings while building up your domain interests.
If you blog or have a website or two or more, you can save $40 or more on a single domain registration as a Domain Cost Club Member as explained next.
For instance in April 2020, to register a new domain with the .flowers extension costs $100 for Domain Cost Club members whereas the recommended retail price is $175. A saving of $65 after the $9.99 cost of Lite Membership of Domain Cost Club on just one domain.
Another example in April 2020, to register a new domain with the .property extension costs $50 for Domain Cost Club members whereas the recommended retail price is $175. A saving of $115 after the $9.99 cost of Lite Membership of Domain Cost Club on just one domain.
If you are a blogger or a business owner or a hobbyist, you are all set for your own domain. For branding purposes and professional purposes, it looks a lot better if you use your own domain.
The Domain Name Industry Is Changing
This is a very real opportunity with a lot of potential international scope. This is a huge industry as the following statistics show:
- In January 2015, there were over 284,000,000 domain names registered worldwide according to the Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) 2014 Quarter 3 Infographic.
- In October 2019, there were over 359,000,000 domain names registered worldwide according to the Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) 2019 Quarter 3 Report.
- On March 7, 2020 there were over 417,000,0000 domain names registered worldwide according to Domain Name Stat.
That is some growth. There is a lot of potential scope. There are two angles of this huge domain registration growth that I want to discuss with you today.
One is that you or an organization you are involved with will want to register or renew Domain Names using Domain Cost Club’s at-cost pricing. These days, most if not all organizations have a web presence. Many individuals also have a web presence. These organizations and individuals all need domain names. Many organizations and many individuals have multiple domain names. These organizations and individuals all need to register or renew domain names.
And two is that you might want to look at their referral program. This is another aspect to Domain Cost Club membership that might appeal to you. This might give you additional work related options. This may allow you to work from home, vacation anywhere, work anywhere there is an internet connection, be your own boss, have fun when making money, and so on and so forth. If you are also looking not to handle physical stock and associated headaches, the Domain Cost Club referral program might be an option. Best of all, you can start it part time and see how it works out for you. Just another optional part of Domain Cost Club membership that might appeal to you.
The domain name industry is currently allowing many more top level extension names to be applied to domain names. These are the names seen at the end of domain names. Traditionally these were names like .COM, .NET, and .ORG along as well as country extension names like .CO.UK, .IE, and .CA
Now many more extension names are in use and more will be in use in the future. Names like .DANCE, .BAND, .GREEN, .NINJA and .GLOBAL immediately jump to mind. There are loads more.
There is a lot of excitement in connection with the new domain extensions as it is sure to get interesting in the next while. Some of the new domain extensions make it much easier to guess things about the website before you go to it.
It does not take a lot to work out what “Burger.Melbourne” do and where they are located. I am getting hungry and they are on the other side of the planet. 🙂
Nothing to do with me, just an interesting example. To advertise, all they would have to do is print “Burger.Melbourne” – I wonder would this be considered as one word or two words if they were doing classified advertising, paying for each separate word. 🙂 🙂
These new domain extension names are making the web more interesting.
Other businesses are buying the rights to use the new domain extension names and sometimes these go to auction.
Donuts, a domain registry business has spent $58,000,000 to apply for over 300 new top-level domains and has around 190 of these under contract. At the moment my understanding is that Donuts is the owner of the newest new domain extension name, beating other well known companies Google and Amazon.
Google in February 2015 in an ICANN auction brought the rights to the new .APP extension name by paying over $25,000,000.
Donuts and Google are going to re-coup their investments over time using whatever business models make the most sense to them.
The domain name industry is changing and the newer extension names are adding a lot. Some people think .COM will disappear in time however I do not think so. Some people think that .COM will remain very strong in America and that the growth for the newer extension names is really going to come from Asia. Time will tell.
In 2020, the .COM extension still accounts for above 40% of domain names.
Go with Domains Ending with .COM
This is my personal opinion. However I like to think that it is well reasoned out.
Generally speaking, if you are going to register a domain, that it should be a domain ending with the .COM extension. If your market is country specific, then you may want a domain name that uses the domain extension specific for that country. It really depends on who your target market is, where they are located and what they reasonably expect. By the way, my understanding is that about 35% of the domain name market is taken by domains ending with a two letter country extension.
I ask these questions:
- Why do domain names ending with the popular .COM extension account for over 40% of the domain name market?
- Why do domain names ending with the popular .NET extension account for over 4% of the domain name market? They have been around for a long time and they have not got anywhere near the .COM extension.
- Why do domain names ending with the popular .ORG extension account for over 3% of the domain name market? They have been around for a long time and they have not got anywhere near the .COM extension.
- Why haven’t domain names with “new” general extensions in the last few years reached a “decent level of success”? From what I can figure out, they account for less than 13% of the total domain market with over 1200 “new” general extensions eg .top, .xyz and .loan. It also appears that a lot of these domain names are simply being parked for the moment.
- Why did Zoom, Inc apparently spend $2 million to purchase the zoom.com domain?
- Why did Elon Musk apparently spend $11 million to purchase the tesla.com domain?
- Why lose potential traffic when people “guess” your domain name? When people are “guessing” the name of your domain, they may use your company name followed by .COM first and after that, they could type in anything looking for your domain. For instance, TeslaMotors.com is not a domain name I would have guessed for Tesla. Just saying.
Pretty good reasons to use a .COM domain name where possible and where it makes sense.
My Story and My Observations of Domain Cost Club
David of WorkFromHomeNotes.com says:
I have been buying/renewing domain names and related privacy services for some time. By November 2014, I purchased or renewed or transferred my domain names using a number of different domain name registrars, some good, some okay and some crap.
In November 2014 I discovered Domain Cost Club and tried them out. That was a good experience. Since then, Domain Cost Club has got all of my domain name related business. This includes new registrations, renewals and transfers.
Why Would You Become a Domain Cost Club Member?
I became a paid up member of Domain Cost Club in November 2014. Over a period of time I moved all of my domains over to them. I usually have between five and fifteen domain names active at any one point in time so being able to register domains, renew domains and move domains at-cost makes good sense. It costs me less than $9 to register a .COM domain for a year and get domain privacy for it as well. I am of the opinion that if a good domain name jumps into your mind and you can do something about it, you should consider registering it before someone else does.
Naturally you do need to be sensible about it. You do need some sort of outline plan of what you are going to do with that domain name. For instance, I registered a domain name a while back and did not really do anything with it for over nineteen months, apart from putting up an almost empty secure WordPress Hosted website a day or two after I registered the domain. I just had the idea I was going to build up this website. If I had waited nineteen months before registering the domain, it is possible I would have forgotten the name or it is possible that someone else would have purchased the domain in the interim.
At this stage, I have been with Domain Cost Club since November 2014. It is easy to contact their support on the internet. This involves completing an online form and once you submit that, you can expect to hear back from them within a timely manner. Any time I used this online form, I have heard back from them in a timely manner. I find them good.
They have a good offering and they are good value for sure. And as already mentioned, I find their support team to be good. I am able to manage my domains using their “Control Panel”. I like it. I find it slick, clean, modern and easy to work with.
Domain Cost Club is a fully ICANN accredited domain registrar. This is not always the case with other businesses offering domain registrations. Some are domain resellers who then deal with a domain registrar to register your domains for you. Domain Cost Club is typically nearer to the top of the domain name food chain than a lot of other businesses offering domain registration services.
If you register a domain name and look up its whois record, you might notice that your registrar details are not what you expected. One possible reason for this is that your domain “registrar” is in fact a domain reseller, which is usually perfectly fine. It just raises unnecessary questions and unnecessary concern.
Below is a screenshot of a whois search on this WorkFromHomeNotes.com domain and you can clearly see that Domain Cost Club is listed as the ICANN accredited domain registrar domain registrar associated with this domain:
I think that if you are going to register a domain, that it should be a domain ending with the .COM extension. I explained my reasoning earlier on in this article. My suggestion is simple, register domains ending with the extremely popular .COM extension and registrar them with Domain Cost Club who is a fully ICANN accredited domain registrar. This is not always the case with other businesses offering domain registrations. Some are domain resellers who then deal with a domain registrar to register your domains for you.
If you are registering domains with Domain Cost Club, you will most likely save money when compared with other Domain Registrars as explained earlier in this article.
Domain Cost Club is a domain name registrar who offer at-cost pricing for domain registrations, domain renewals and domain transfers for current active Domain Cost Club Members with the appropriate membership type. And Domain Cost Club allow you to upgrade your membership type to a higher type should you discover you need the higher type during the year.
As shown earlier in price comparisons, their price for even one domain name ending in .COM, purchased with domain privacy is more cost effective with them than with another well known domain seller.
As also shown earlier in price comparisons, their price for three domain names ending in .COM, which includes domain privacy is more cost effective with them than with my second choice.
Why Look at Domain Cost Club?
Good question. With Domain Cost Club you can forget about paying extra for domain privacy services, promotional codes, crazy bundles, and discounted registration with poison-pill renewal fees:-
- Great no matter how many domains you buy a year.
- Domain Cost Club is the first and only domain registrar in the world to offer all domains at cost. New domains, transfers, renewals. No markup. Ever. Guaranteed!
- Just take a moment or two, to figure out what this actually means for you. And compare prices.
Here, here and here. - I find that they are easy to work with and their support is very responsive.
- I find their “Control Panel” to manage domains is modern, slick, clean and easy to work with.
- Get new registrations at great prices.
- Get renewals at great prices.
- Get transfers at great prices.
- Get free domain privacy services.
- Earn recurring money on referrals.
Summary overview
| Product: | Domain Cost Club Membership |
| Pros: | 1) At-Cost domain name pricing 2) Free domain privacy services 3) Earn recurring money on referrals |
| Cons: | 1) Small cost of annual applicable Domain Cost Membership 2) Hard to understand concept – Buy applicable membership to buy up to specified number of domains at-cost 3) Domain Cost Club is not widely known |
| Membership Benefits: | 1) At-Cost domain registrations 2) At-Cost renewals 3) At-Cost transfers 4) Free domain privacy services 5) Affiliate starter kit 6) Replicated site 7) Earn commissions 8) Commission tracking |
| Target audience: | 1) People who want to purchase new domains and renewals using Domain Cost Club’s At-Cost pricing model 2) People fed up paying the full ridiculous outrageous recommended retail prices for new domains and renewals 3) People fed up paying ridiculous outrageous extra fees for domain privacy services on a per domain name per year basis |
| My Rating: | 9.8/10 |
| Membership Price: | 1) Lite: Buy up to 5 domains at-cost – Membership costs $9.99 per year 2) Basic: Buy up to 19 domains at-cost – Membership costs $29.99 per year 3) Plus: Buy up to 49 domains at-cost – Membership costs $49.99 per year 4) Unlimited: Buy unlimited domains at-cost – Membership costs $99.99 per year |
Interesting option
Don’t want to become a Domain Cost Club member and still want to buy or renew domains? No problem. You can create a free retail account at Domain Cost Club and pay the current recommended retail prices for domain names. Domain privacy services are currently free for retail accounts. You can always upgrade your retail account later.
My preferred Domain Registrar is Domain Cost Club. They get all of my domain name related business and have since November 2014.
Buy Your Domain Cost Club Membership and Start Saving on Domains.
Domain Cost Club Annual Membership
Pros
- At-Cost domain name pricing
- Free domain privacy services
- Earn recurring money on referrals
Cons
- Small cost of Domain Cost Club Lite Annual Membership
- Hard to understand concept – Buy applicable membership to buy up to a specified number of domains at-cost
- Domain Cost Club is not widely known
How are they able to offer domain registrations at cost? I’m assuming the company is a domain registrar themselves in order to allow people to register domain names. Since they are a company it’s reasonable to assume that they will have overhead expenses and costs to run their business. How are they able to recoup these overhead expenses and costs, in addition to making a profit by selling domains at cost? it seems like there is some sort of catch or upsell?
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your questions. Yes, you are correct. Domain Cost Club is a fully ICANN-accredited domain registrar. Domain Cost Club Members pay a membership fee in order to buy domains at cost. The margin on the membership fee is enough to recover costs as they use the internet to keep some of their costs down. There is no catch.
All the best Thomas,
David
Sounds very intriguing how they can offer domain names at cost and still make money. Everybody wants to work on the internet these days so domain names are a hot commodity.
Hi Monkey Man,
Yes, that is the bit that gets people. Domain Cost Club Members pay a membership fee in order to buy domains at cost. The margin on the membership fee is enough to recover costs as they use the internet to keep their costs down.
As more people start to build their own websites, the domain name business can only get more interesting. As more top level extension names become available (eg .GREEN .GURU .NINJA), the domain business will become more interesting.
All the best Monkey Man,
David
Hi there!
This seems like a very attractive proposition on the surface – who wouldn’t want to pay tidy prices for domain names for once?
I’ve only ever used GoDaddy but they make sure you pay the full premium when purchasing with them.
Can I ask, how many times have you bought off this lot and have you had any concerns thus far?
They seem very attractive but I’d like to know how new they are to the market.
Look forward to your reply
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for asking these questions.
With Domain Cost Club I have registered a number of domains, moved a number of domains over to them and renewed a number of domains with them. To do this I also purchased the relevant Domain Cost Club Membership package. I also keep my Domain Cost Club membership package active and have been a continuous member of Domain Cost Club since November 2014. I expect this to be the case for the foreseeable future.
Whenever I register/renew/move domains in the future, it will be with them. I will never have to pay retail prices for a domain again.
I also find it easier to work with their back office to manage my domains. Their support department actually answered the questions I had in a timely manner. Domain Cost Club started in 2014.
Cheers Chris,
David
I never heard of this company before and so I am just wondering if it is relatively new.
Hi,
Thanks for your comments.
Yes they are relatively new as they were founded in 2014.
Cheers,
David
Hi David
Thanks for a great article. I see a .com can be bought for $7.85? But what if I only have 4 domains, it would really be worth the yearly fee then?
Do you have to pay the yearly fee to be an affiliate and how does it work that you get your own website?
Kind Regards
Lynne
Hi Lynne,
Thanks for the questions. They are all good questions. To answer your questions:
You do have to factor in the cost of Domain Cost Club membership, the number of domains you buy per year, the number of domains requiring private registration services and the associated affiliate arrangement if any.
The pricing/costing comparison below excludes any applicable taxes. So the potential savings are usually more when any applicable taxes are included in the numbers. And to be clear, I am using the US Dollar as the currency in this comparison.
Let’s do the comparison:
With 4 dot com sites, you will most likely save money if you are on the right Domain Cost Club membership package – The Lite membership package. You pay a membership fee to become a Domain Cost Club Member which allows you to purchase your domains via Domain Cost Club using At-Cost pricing.
Domain Cost Club charges:
$9.99 for Lite Domain Cost Club Membership fee for one year
$7.85 plus $0.18 [ICAN fee] plus $0.41 [payment processing fee] plus $0.00 [domain privacy] comes to $8.44 per dot com domain name per year
Costing in total $43.75
HostGator (a popular domain registrar) charges:
$12.95 plus $14.95 [domain privacy] comes to $27.90 per dot com domain name per year
Costing in total $111.60
In this example, with 4 dot com domains, you would have potentially saved $67.85 per year.
Please bear in mind that either Domain Cost Club or HostGator or both may change their prices in the future.
I think that this potential saving per year would make switching over to Domain Cost Club a no brainer for you. Plus you also have the opportunity to sell Domain Cost Club Memberships if you want.
When you become a member, they give you a replicated website. See mine here.
When people buy Domain Cost Club Membership packages using your link, you get credit for any applicable Domain Cost Club memberships you sell. That also has recurring potential as well.
Cheers,
David
It certainly seems like a really good deal but there must be some sort of catch further along the line? How do they make their profit?
Are there going to be tidal waves of upsells hitting my mail box in a week or two? Is the company in good standing? Look forward to hearing your reply
Hi Chris,
I have been a member of Domain Cost Club since November 2014. I have experienced no catch with them. They make their profit on selling memberships to Domain Cost Club.
They do send out emails relating to different sections when you are a Domain Cost Club Member (signup emails, new TLD releases, domain news industry information and special at-cost price reductions). Domain Cost Club Members can manage (subscribe/unsubscribe) if they want to receive these emails or not, for each of these sections separately.
You might want to received just the signup emails, so you subscribe to that section and unsubscribe from the other sections. It is totally up to you.
I have never received an up-sell email from them. I joined as a standard club member to test out their offerings for myself. A few months later, I took the option to upgrade to a Lifetime Charter Member because it made so much sense to me.
They are a domain name registrar. Registrars are the wholesalers in the domain business. All registrars buy domains at exactly the same price from registries, and then sell them to end-users. Domain Cost Club is revolutionizing the model by introducing at-cost pricing to everyone who becomes a Domain Cost Club Member.
Cheers,
David
Hi David.
Thanks for sharing this information. I have never heard of this company? Are they new? Or have I just missed the boat somewhere. I’ll definitely be checking them out – I have a bad habit of when awake at 3am in the morning thinking of random domain names and spending time finding who gets me the best deal. Needless to say Ive got oodles that probably wont be used…but there’s always another one or two that need to be tucked away for a rainy day!
Thanks again for bringing this to my attention
Hi HolisticJB,
You are welcome. Domain Cost Club started selling Domain Cost Club Memberships in 2014, so they are pretty new.
Many new domain extension names are becoming available. You can purchase some really good extension names for very good prices as a Domain Cost Club Member.
The member’s area for Domain Cost Club Members where you manage the domains you buy via Domain Cost Club is very easy to use and you know before looking that you are already going to get the best prices so you are free to focus on the domain names. So you should have no trouble using it at 3 am in the morning or at any other time for that matter. 🙂
Happy Domaining,
David
Before I head over there, do you mean to say the membership costs money? So I pay a yearly fee, then I can buy as many domains as I like and also sell them as I like? But if I sell them the benefit of the lower fee per year will be gone for the buyer or won’t it? I always thought the real business was registering great domains cheap, like the registrar doesn’t make a difference between a top level and a not so top level domain. Same, if new extensions come into the market you want to be quick and pre-order the best domains, but not to sit on them. You want to sell them at a price. So I don’t really understand the benefit here. Can you explain a bit more in detail?
Hi Heidi,
Yes, with Domain Cost Club, you pay an annual membership fee based on your membership type. One of the benefits of membership is that you can then buy domains using at-cost pricing. This is the exact same price that it costs Domain Cost Club and every other ICANN accredited registrar, such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions. These are the “wholesale or trade” prices.
You can buy as many domains as you like, subject to the maximum number that your membership type allows. You can upgrade your membership type to a higher type should you find yourself buying more domains.
I suppose you could sell those domains to your contacts directly, get the money of them (maybe using Paypal) and transfer the domain over to them. This is something you would do on your own. It’s called domain name flipping. It is not something that I do.
I am more interested in marketing/selling Domain Cost Club Memberships using affiliate marketing.
Happy domaining,
David
Great review.
It sounds like a great idea, but I just have a question. What happens with domains that you have already purchased through Go Daddy or other registrars. Can you renew them through Domain Cost Club and save when the time comes?
Normally a domain costs around $10 to $12 a year if it is new, so it would be interesting to know what the domains cost through the Domain Cost Club.
Hi Michel,
Great question.
Yes, you simply transfer them across to Domain Cost Club when the time comes. I have done this twice and the process itself is simple enough when you know what to do. You can read about my experience when I did it the first time here.
The second time was way simpler as I built on my experience from doing it the first time. Thank goodness I documented that first experience here.
Oh and you do not have to wait for your domain to almost expire. You can do the transfer much earlier. Say your domain expires on January 3, 2016 and it is now April 16, 2015 and you purchased your domain on say January 3, 2015. You do the transfer process with Domain Cost Club on April 16, 2015 and add an year to your existing expiry date, bringing the new expiry date to January 3, 2017.
A dot com domain costs me less than $9 per year currently with Domain Cost Club.
Did you notice that Google make its new home at abc.xyz? Domain Cost Club Members can obtain .xyz domains for $1 until August 31, 2015. I got 2 .xyz domains in the excitement and spent “a whopping $2” in the process. My Domain Cost Club Membership saved me over $28 in that process. 🙂
Cheers,
David
Hey, David!
I’ve often thought about purchasing Domain Names because I know some people who make a lot of money from doing so. However, the problem is knowing what kind of names to go for, and this has kinda prevented me from taking action.
The Domain Cost Club sounds like an ideal way for me to begin my journey with making some money online 🙂
Neil
Hi Neil,
How much you actually earn is up to you with the Domain Cost Club referral program. This is based on the actual sales of Domain Cost Club Memberships you actually sell. Domain Cost Club provide a framework for you to work within.
Flipping domain names is an interesting idea. I do know that some domain names were flipped for lots of money. Zoom may have spent $2 million for Zoom.com and Elon Musk may have spent $11 million for tesla.com are two examples that jump to my mind.
Just to be clear, Domain Cost Club is not a “flipping domains” solution. They do not help you to find buyers etc for the domain names you want to flip. Where Domain Cost Club would be of benefit is that you can register domain names using their At-Cost pricing model which will help you keep those type of costs down.
I assume that you would have to have a good number of domain names registered to find a few decent winners and possibility for some time meaning years before the few decent winners actually purchase that domain name from you.
I wish you all the best in your flipping domains adventures. With Domain Cost Club at least you will be able to keep the cost of registering those domain names to a reasonable low amount.
Most domain registrars charge extra money on a per domain name per year for domain privacy services. Domain Cost Club charges $0.00 (yes zero) per domain name for domain privacy services to current active Domain Cost Club members.
So with 100 domains registered to be “flipped” this could save you $999.99 per year just on the domain privacy services alone aspect of Domain Cost Club membership. Just an observation.
Cheers Neil,
David
Thank you for the domain name registrar website recommendation. I’m definitely going to use Domain Cost Club for all domains I buy in the future. I love that they have an affiliate program. This article could be made better if there were recommendations for other domain name registrar websites as well. Thanks again!
Hi Jillian,
Currently I cannot recommend other domain registrar websites as well.
The registrar I used to be with wanted $9.99 for a dot com domain for one year plus $7.95 for domain privacy, which for me as a Domain Cost Club Member costs $7.85 plus $0.00 for domain privacy. Pay $17.94 or $7.85 for the same thing. I recommend the $7.85 over the $17.94 option any day for the exact same thing.
Another registrar has a discount Domain Club which allows people to buy domains cheaper. With them, it is almost $120 per year for membership. With Domain Cost Club, membership per year varies in price from $9.99 to $99.99 based on membership type. With that other discount Domain Club, a dot com domain is $8.29 per year, with Domain Cost Club it is $7.85 – I recommend Domain Cost Club as it is cheaper in this case. Also with them, the person who referred the person who buys the almost $120 annual membership fee, gets nothing for their trouble. In this case I recommend Domain Cost Club over them any day.
Now you see why I can not recommend other domain registrars.
I recommend Domain Cost Club based on personal experience with them. And based on my own personal experiences with other domain registrars since 2002. And based on my own personal research when I was researching domain registrars at different times since 2002.
Kind Regards,
David
Thanks for this information. I have used Godaddy and Namecheap before but never heard of Domain Cost Club before. How much does a domain name cost here?
I have only got 4 domains, do you think it would it be worth my time to now move my domains across to Domain Cost Club?
Hi Lynne,
Domains with different extensions can cost different prices. For example a dot COM domain name usually costs different than a dot ORG domain name. Different sellers also charge different prices based on their pricing strategy.
If you go here, you will see the current special offers. Today (September 20, 2015) Domain Cost Club Members can purchase each dot COM domain for $7.85 for a year and/or each dot XYZ domain for $3.00 (This is a very special offer) for a year. You need to go to the official Domain Cost Club website here to get current information including current pricing, current terms and conditions.
GoDaddy, a well known player in the Domain Name industry also has a discount domain club. I did some comparisons between GoDaddy and Domain Cost Club recently. The above article includes that information and comparisons.
The above article also includes a few ‘doing the sums’ price comparisons based on real life real world pricing comparisons at specific points in time.
At the time of those real life real world pricing comparisons, the prices at Domain Cost Club were more price effective (cheaper) even with the price of annual Domain Cost Club membership.
I hope that you find this article useful.
Let me know if you have any other questions in connection with Domain Cost Club.
Happy days,
David
Hi there! That’s a nice post you have created here.
Very nicely explained and easy for a reader to understand.
I will definitely come back to this site in the future.
I’m sure many people will find this article as useful and interesting as I did.
Thanks for sharing this nice information.
Cheers and best of luck to you.
Hi there back, thanks.
I find Domain Cost Club easy to work with as I hope you will when you work with them in the future.
Have a brilliant weekend.
Best,
David
Awesome review of a great product. I can see what I will really be getting from this program. I will definitely share to my friends to help them out.
Thank you indeed for your feedback. Always good to hear from my readers. 🙂
Just last Friday, which was Black Friday, as a Domain Cost Club member you could have purchased a .host domain name for 1 years registration for just $4, saving a whopping $96 in the process. That was just one great deal that Domain Cost Club had last Friday which was Black Friday. Of course, as a Domain Cost Club member, you could have purchased multiple .host domains saving you a whopping $96 for each one. What a great deal. You might have had to upgrade your membership type to a higher type to get those additional savings, even so, those savings are huge.
Happy savings,
David
Hi David,
This seems like a well researched topic by you. It always occur to me that companies like these have a lot more income streams than just selling domain and maybe hosting them too. How else could they be just selling domains and surviving.
This is just a thought.
Anyway, very well presented information here!
Hi Chris,
I would imagine that for Domain Cost Club it is purely down to numbers, like a lot of other businesses.
From the point of view of a Domain Cost Club affiliate, it is a simple product. Domain Cost Club affiliates sell just one type of product, Memberships to allow people the “right” to buy domain names using their At-Cost Pricing model. Nothing more, nothing less.
Kind regards,
David
If you want your website to be legit and to stand then you must have a domain name, this is the first time that I have heard of this company, I know that there are other companies that are out there that also offers this type of service. But it seems like this program offers more. This sounds very solid and concrete.
Hi Norman,
Yes if you purchase web domain names on a regular basis, and let’s face it, if you have websites, you should be hosting your websites using web domain names to add that extra professional touch.
This is a place to purchase web domain names using At-Cost Pricing. Who wants to pay full retail when you do not have to?
And this also has an affiliate marketing aspect to it to give it that extra appeal.
Kind Regards,
David
This is definitely a good value, considering the cost-effectiveness. Domain Cost Club is definitely looking like a real steal, especially for those bloggers who own domains. I honestly wouldn’t mind becoming a paid member of them, myself, considering the fact I already own three domains and would love to come up with more in the future.
Hi Todd,
With three domains currently and more potentially in the future you should consider moving your domains to Domain Cost Club. As you say, it is a real steal.
You can usually transfer domains from one domain registrar to another before the current term expires provided you satisfied some rules and conditions. In those cases, you usually pay for another period of time with the new registrar, the domain is moved, and the expiry date is expended by the new period that you registered, so all good there.
Happy Domaining,
Peace,
David
Thanks for sharing this review!
I haven`t heard of Domain Cost Club, and as you`ve mentioned you have been using it for over 4 years now. So, it has been around then, not new.
It is kinda interesting to note that being a member will allow you to register, renew, and transfer. But what is more interesting is that you are allowed to cancel a domain and your payment will be reversed (which i often wonder if it is even ever possible).
I will look into this!
All the best!
Hi Hanna,
Domain Cost Club has been around since 2014. They are a fully ICANN-accredited domain registrar. This is not always the case with other businesses offering domain registrations. Some are domain resellers who then deal with a fully ICANN-accredited domain registrar to register your domains for you.
Yes, being able to cancel a domain name within five days of purchase with them and getting your money back is an interesting feature for sure. I don’t know how often I have seen in chats that people misspell their new domains, register them, pay for them and then discover the typo. With other registrars, tough luck. With Domain Cost Club, complete an online form, submit it and wait a while for that to be processed, and for the domain to be cancelled and you refunded. It works very well.
Happy domaining,
Peace,
David